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“Obviously, the lame-duck theory was premised on the idea that people needed to understand what the political landscape was going to be,” said Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.). “I think, in a way, if Romney wins, there might be more of a feeling [that] the new administration should get a crack at it.”

Recognizing the urgency of acting on the fiscal cliff — not to mention the short time frame — many senators have started to quietly lay the groundwork so Congress can move swiftly on a deal after the elections.

But sequestration isn’t the only dilemma Congress will face in the lame-duck session. Lawmakers will confront the scheduled expiration of Bush-era tax rates, along with a bevy of other provisions set to expire, such as the payroll tax cut and the Medicare reimbursement rate for doctors.

Capitol Hill also faces the prospect that the nation could again bump up against the debt limit, which could trigger another battle similar to the fight in the summer of 2011 that pushed the nation closer to default.

“I think most members know that something big could happen at the end of this year,” said Bell, who’s now with the Bipartisan Policy Center. “But I’m pretty sure they haven’t sat down and really calculated all the things they’re going to have to confront within — really — a 45-day working period.”

Partial Fix or a Delay?

Of course, dealing with $1.2 trillion in across-the-board spending cuts over 10 years — about half of them in defense — is a monumental task, and there’s no guarantee that Congress will resolve sequestration in a short time frame.

What could happen is that Congress comes up with a partial fix to stop a portion of the cuts and then lets lawmakers come up with a longer-term solution in 2013, when they aren’t jammed in a lame-duck session and facing other daunting fiscal challenges.

“It seems to me, before January, we have to come together to replace the meat-ax cuts in the sequester with alternative savings,” said Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee. “How long a period of time the replacement is for is something that needs to be discussed.”

Earlier this year, House Republicans voted to shield the Pentagon from the first year of cuts by moving tens of billions of dollars from programs that aid the poor, such as food stamp programs, to the Defense Department. But that plan was a nonstarter among Senate Democrats and the White House.

49.1% of households are on the government dole. When it goes over 50%, we will officially be a "welfare nation." The number on food stamps has doubled under Obama. More money is spent on food stamps than all bridge and road projects. Many getting food stamps only qualify through loopholes that ignore their assets.

How can we rule the world with only a $600 BILLION military budget! Yes, that's more than every other nation in the world spends combined.... We're not suppose to rule the world? I'm sorry I didn't get the email.... Put grandma and grandpa in the Basement that will help? Wasn't it their tax monies that paid for social security and medicare? And the only reason the money may not be there in the future is because we have been spending $4.6 BILLION on two wars we didn't pay for for the first time and another $6 TRILLION on a tax cut we couldn't afford... And about those airplanes that don't work and the 300% increase in weapon systems, well we all make mistakes....

@longhorn: Food stamps cost 75 billion in last years budget. For 2012, Obama has requested $129 billion for transportation, as well as $556 billion for transportation to fix this nations failing infrastructure and highway systems. Both the transportation budget and food stamps together constitute about 4% of the total federal budget. To put that in perspective, 20% of our national budget is Defense.

"Congressional Budget Office has warned that the combination of the automatic cuts and expiration of the Bush-era tax rates could trigger a recession"

We have been in a recession/depression since 2008. Throwing money down the rat hole of Military Contractors does not help the citizens of the USA. We only need to defend the US, not control the entire world.

A fascinating horror. A majority in Congress say they want to avoid the defense cuts, and yet they can't reach an agreement. Dysfunction is dangerous. The partisan demagogues cannot act in their own rational self-interest, and they are the role models for too many of our citizens.

Congress with the uncompromising of Congressional Republicans are to blame why nothing is getting done. Republicans choose not to find any common solutions with the Congressional Democrats and the White House for one pure reason. Republicans have continuously put Party over Country for over 3 years.

Republicans number one goal which they have said repeatably over ANY OTHER ISSUES is to make President Obama a one-term President. Republicans do not want to deal with any issue to create jobs, hence why they are stalling transportation funding which creates real jobs now! Republicans do not want to tackle hard issues like immigration reform because they cater to the far right to please tea party conservatives. And Republicans do not want to deal with controlling health care costs, which is why Republicans HAVE NEVER tried to pass any type of health care reform.

Congressional Republicans VOTED for sequestration and now they want to stop it. If Congressional Republicans can learn to work for whats good for the country and put Country before Party, then we can find those common solutions with Democrats and GET SOMETHING DONE!!!!

“Republicans are reluctant to put revenues on the table, but pressure is beginning to build,” said Washington Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. “If we want to stop these cuts, we’ve got to put revenues on the table.”

The only doomsday scenario is for the massive black hole of taxpayer dollars wasted by military contractors. Republicans and their Tea Party Taliban have no problem with massive wasteful DOD spending but we "can't afford Social Security and Medicare" because "we are broke".

It is interesting and telling that the anxiety and, in some instances, panic over sequestration exists in relation to how the spending cuts would affect the Pentagon. Neither the politicians nor the media much talk about how the spending cuts would affect, well, the American people---in particular, the rapidly increasing number of Americans who live at cliff's edge and would simply be pushed over by these cuts.

Am I concerned about extreme cuts in defense spending? Yes. But I am equally concerned about those Americans who are already living in extremis and those Americans who would join them should the extreme cuts in social spending be put in place.

Another clueless democrat....Repubs are not against massive spending cuts...they are against the extremely unreasonable cuts to defense...without a strong defense all the other things that we fight over do not matter. Defense is job 1. It is a shame that Dims do not understand that.